So it's pretty straight forward, if you could build a PC and money wasn't the issue, what would you go for? (Only standard products that are for sale, no tailor-made products)
Case:
BitFenix Shinobi XL White
GPU:
Asus GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB x2
MoBo:
Asus Rampage IV Black Edition
RAM:
GEIL DDR3 Onyx Black evo potenza 8GB quad channel x2
CPU:
Intel® Core™ i7-4960X
Storage:
OCZ RevoDrive3 960GB X2 x2
Western Digital Black 4TB x4 (RAID10)
PSU:
Corsair AX1500i
Water Cooling:
XSPC Razor GTX Titan/780/780Ti x2
XSPC AX360 White
XSPC AX240 White
XSPC RaySotrm CPU WaterBlock (Intel)
XSPC D5 Photon 170 Reservoir/Pump Combo x2
XSPC Photon 170 Tube Reservoir
XSPC Memory WaterBlock + Side Plate Set x2
XSPC Rampage 4 Black Waterblock Set
XSPC Compression fitting
Acrilic tubing
Case Fans:
Cooler Master Jetflo white x11
Fan Controller:
Bitfenix Recon White
Temperature Sensors:
G1/4" Inline 10k Sensor (Black Chrome) x2
G1/4" Plug with 10k Sensor (Black Chrome) x2
Cables:
All white Bitfenix Alchemy cables
Reasoning:
I find multi-display setups annoying (I hate the edges of the screens) so there's no need for more power, which is why I went for the most aesthetically pleasing parts money can buy.
This is my current build. I would like to have a 780ti in place of the 780, but the 780 gives me much of what I want. I wouldn't mind having a smaller form factor build with a simple 1080p monitor to take to university.
Right now, I'm only in the market for a mech keyboard. Not considering much else.
Would be nice to watercool my CPU. For aesthetic purposes, more than overclocking.
I pretty much own my dream rig... maybe an i7 and RoG mobo upgrade... but really it'd be wasteful... I can do whatever I want, fast, as is... I guess it'd be cool to have a 1TB SSD
A few racks of 4x 12 core Xeons and Xeon Phis, with some 22 port RAID cards for RAID 5 with 2TB SSDs, all in a Linux computing grid for me to play with.
I basically laid out my dream system in my beast rig post a few down but in a nutshell I want a super clean ROG, i7 4770k, 780/ti x2, 16 gig ram, 2-3 tb ssd's (no more spinning drives), with a custom loop (black sparkle bitspower fittings ) and hard tubed and custom wiring all neatly packed in a fractal design case. (Arc xl or define r4) and a custom paint job in a urban hex camo ( blue, grey, dark grey)
basically a sick looking rig optimized for gaming.
GPU4: NVidia Geforce Titan as a dedicated PhysX card
GPU cooling: 4x NZXT Kraken X60 + Kraken G10
GPU5: Matrox GPU for monitor outputs
Storage controller: LSI MegaRAID for SAS on PCIe x16 to 2x PCIe x8 switch.
Main storage: 8x 3TB Seagate Constellation 7200rpm SAS HDDs in RAID-Z2
OS: 8x 128 GB Winkom SLX-8 SLC SSDs in (every 2 in a RAID1, and those units together in RAID0)
Case: built by me, out of parts of various 19" rack case
OS: Arch, running a virtual Windows for gaming, a virtual Windows for applications, a virtual Kubuntu for skype, a virtual OpenSUSE for Web Browsing and the usual day-to-day stuff, and a virtual Arch to fuck around with.
Monitors: 3x Eizo 2560x1440 displays for gaming, 8x 3840x2160 24" or lower displays for everything else. All mounted on SpaceCo monitor arms.
Well yes, but in that case, every regular tower can fit 20 ssds. But with "fitting", I meant:"are there enough mounting and cable management options. :)
My dream build wouldn't really be a single PC in a case.
It would be more like a main workstation with all the obligatory top end components, with 64 GB RAM for creating lots of virtual machines for testing network/domain deployment designs/ideas.
Then I would have a server rack, with a Cisco SG200-26P Gigabit switch with PoE (Power over Ethernet) and a 3U storage chassis for housing a storage server, with appropriate RAID config and whatnot. I would buy some PoE security cameras to mount around the outside of my house and have that beamed through the PoE switch to the storage server. I would configure 10 Gigabit Ethernet between my workstation and storage server to store all VMs on the server (and all other pictures/videos/documents, etc.) and 10GbE would ensure performance is still fantastic. Which would allow me to keep all non-replaceable files off of my workstation, that way I can freely re-image the workstation without losing anything. I'd just have to make sure I have the configuration maintained properly which isn't too difficult.
I'd have some of Dell's 24" 4K monitors, mounted with proper arms so I can have a plethora of VMs on screen all at once because why the hell not?
I'd have a proper audio setup utilizing JBL's completely-overkill-professional-level subwoofer the STX828S Dual 18" Bass Reflex Subwoofer which peaks at 8000W and other equivalent level mid-range audio monitors.
I'd have beast mode printer like HP M880z+ because I've gone this far overkill why not go more.
It would be configured as a proper Windows Server 2012 R2-based enterprise domain network on a standard 1U server in the rack as a Domain Controller/DNS server. Basically I would just create a small business deployment in my house. Obviously I will never be able to afford such a setup unless I magically became a millionaire, but hey you said dream build.
Legitimately though, I am looking at getting a Cisco 24-port Gigabit switch with a central storage server. My main PC and the storage server would be configured for 10Gb between each other but all other devices would be stuck with standard Gigabit through the switch. It'd be a very similar setup to what Linus showcased a couple years ago on Linus Tech Tips here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu6jlA7hPj8
Well its more of a joke than anything as if i could have a "dream computer" with no funds holding me back i would something insanly expensive as that regardless if it all worked or was balanced in any sense. 160k for a PC is insane
I don't think that there's a watercooling solution for a GTX 760 MARS yet though :p You could go for 780 poseidons if you want to make the ROG team really stand out while being allowed to watercool your GPU's.
i agree with berserker anything beyond my needs is a waste, with that in mind i would get a FX8350 with a UD3 MB, 16gigs of G'Skill, 1TB and maybe 1 500gig WD black, nice HDD's for the price, maybe a 64 or 32 gig SSD for caching, maybe a 760 hawk from MSI or a 280X(when i drops in price if it does) maybe even a 270X hawk, something around that range that overclocks well, my case would be a Phantom 530 with 600 or 650 watt psu and a CPU water cooling system for overclocking maybe GPU aswell, i'd also like to have a FirePro V3900 for content creation and CAD and stuff like that.
that would cover all my needs, i could play most games at max, handle cpu heavy tasks, run multiple virtual machines with a virtual router and network so i could do some pen testing, make some Skyrim mods and game if i could get my brother to help and i could use CAD software and similar stuff, i'd like to be an engineer and i think it'll help if i'm already familiar with this software. oh and i'd only use one screen, i dont see the need for anything more than say a single 25" maybe 30" nothing more than 200$ and thats all except peripherals and the stuff i have is fine.